FCC Asked to Penalize Carriers Who Don’t Complete Calls to Rural Areas

Rural carriers that have been complaining about calls not being completed to their customers gained support from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners last week when NARUC – an association of state regulators — sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking the commission to do more to prevent such problems.

“The FCC needs to expeditiously identify a provider or providers that have not resolved practices that result in call termination issues . . . and take appropriate and swift action,” NARUC Committee on Communications Chair John Burke wrote. Burke noted that some originating carriers still are not completing calls to certain rural areas, despite the FCC’s Feb. 2012 declaratory ruling on call termination, which gives the FCC the power to impose monetary penalties on carriers that fail to terminate their customers’ calls to rural phone lines. The letter builds upon a resolution passed by NARUC members in July which stated that “upon identifying providers that are not in compliance with the . . . declaratory ruling, the FCC should take appropriate and swift action consistent with the penalties set forth in the . . . declaratory ruling in order to restore public safety, homeland security and consumer welfare in America.”